BLOGPALOOZA: PART TWO! Sal Has Another Super-Busy Day, Part One: The Butler Institute of American Art

Here is BLOGPALOOZA, Part Two -- an attempt to catch up with Sal's recent activities!  She has so much fun it's hard to keep up with her!

My friend Heidi, the guru of all things pop culture, told me that there was a Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown.  Trying to find a date we were both free was a challenge, but we finally settled on Friday, June 27th.  Heidi also wanted to see another exhibit at the museum -- Kim Novak: Pastel Paintings.  Two celebrity exhibits at the same time.  Cool.

I took some pictures at the Sendak exhibit, but because of the challenges involved in posing Sal with a small drawing or painting high on a wall, the results were meh. 

We walked around the rest of the museum, and saw many cool things, some of which are pictured below.  You won't see the museum's most famous paintings, though, because Sal and I went to the Butler last year and I took photos of those works at that time.  If you are interested in more of what the museum has to offer, here's last July's Butler post. 

This is so cool!  The next photo explains what's going on in the painting.

Neat, right!?

I know it was naughty, but the frame around this painting was plenty wide and flat for Sal to sit on.  There's a ukulele!  And a record player!  How could I resist!?

A room full of carousel horses -- and decorative objects from carousels.  I did not try to pose Sal on one of the saddles -- even though I really wanted to! 

I had to take a picture of this painting because of the hidden ukulele shape within.  Do you see it?  The painting is called Seer, and it was painted in 1947 by Adolph Gottleib.

Raenell, Heidi, and Sal posing with an incredibly life-like sculpture of a security guard -- punnily named Seated Security Guard #2 (Art).

Eventually we ended up in the room containing the Kim Novak exhibit.  I'm not going to say what I thought of her work.  I will let it speak for itself. 

Heidi and Sal with Kim Novak's painting about the film Vertigo.

Read this, and then look at the painting below...

I solved the problem of getting Sal into a photo of a painting by standing in such a way that she is reflected in the glass of the painting.  Of course you can see me, too, but the point is that Sal is in the photo.

Our museum day ended in the gift shop.  I purchased a copy of Maurice Sendak's wonderful Pierre.  I read Pierre to my kids many times when they were young, and am looking forward to reading it to the darling Sophia.  The shop had lots of other Sendak stuff, too -- magnets, shirts, and the oh-so-tempting jigsaw puzzle pictured below.

Because of time pressures, I have given up doing jigsaw puzzle and hosting jigsaw puzzle nights at my house.  I actually gave away most of the puzzles I had purchased -- keeping just a couple of favorites to maybe do someday.  When I saw this Where the Wild Things Are puzzle, I came every close to caving, but something held me back -- the realization that I have NO TIME to do this puzzle!!!

Sal at the Butler Institute of American Art

Sal enjoys visiting museums, so today she went to the Butler Institute of American Art with two friends and me.  Using my new GPS, we were able to navigate thither without a single wrong turn or missed exit.  (Hooray for the technology that will keep this directionally challenged blogger on the straight and narrow, so to speak.)

I've found that the lighting in museums is not conducive to a project like mine.  The paintings are well lit, but the lighting in the center of the galleries is dimmer.  This means that when I place Sal on one of the benches in the center and take a picture of her with a painting in the background, there is going to be an exposure problem.  If the painting is properly exposed, Sal will be too dark.  If Sal is properly exposed, the painting will be overexposed.  That being said, I am including two such exposure-challenged shots, because these paintings are so awesome.  (Of course I always choose to properly expose Sal in situations like these.  She's the star here, after all!)

This Norman Rockwell painting is called "Lincoln the Railsplitter."  Rockwell wrote "I hope this painting might inspire the youth of this land to appreciate this man who believed so much in the value of education."

John Singer Sargent painted the portrait behind Sal.  It is so lovely -- and my librarian self loves that it shows a mother reading to her children.

When the bench is right in front of the painting, the resulting photos are much better.  :)

This gorgeous painting by Robert William Vonnoh is titled "In Flanders Field -- Where Soldiers Sleep & Poppies Grow".

Love the colors and textures in this sculpture.  When I was down on the floor taking pictures of it, I'm pretty sure the guard sitting nearby thought I was a looney.

This is a small portion of a sculpture by Viola Frey.  I couldn't get more in because I was trying to avoid including the ropes surrounding the art.

My friend Tom had the idea to hold Sal in front of this painting to make it look like Sal was on the table.  Brilliant!  I hope that George Mauersberger -- the artist who painted the original work -- will not be upset by the addition of a uke to his creation.

On the little camera screen this looked perfect, but unfortunately Sal is a titch above the tabletop.  I still think it's a cool picture anyway! 

This is how we did it.  Thanks, Tom, for the idea and for holding Sal so steadily for these shots.  :)

We entered a dark room and saw some amazing things.  Here are just two of them.

A plaque on the base of the aptly named "Harmonic Sculpture #10" instructed us to clap near it to make the little discs move and go around.  We tried it and it was fun, so I decided to ask David to strum Sal and see if this would make the sculpture do its thing.  It did!  This cool sculpture was created by Wen-Ying Tsai.

I loved how "Cantabile" by Stephen Knapp spread colored light all around it.

There was also a room full of sculptures like this one.  A light shining from above made the twisty wires reflect on the wall and create shadow pictures.

These shadow-casting sculptures were so amazing.  I'm not sure if this one -- or the one of George Washington's head -- was my favorite...  The artist is Larry Kagan.

This way-cool work "...is an array of 121 mirror faced blocks.  The faces of the blocks are inclined at the precise angles necessary to direct all of the mirror faces to the focal point, 8 feet in front of the center of the array."  Of course I had to try to get a picture of Sal in all of those mirrors.  My friends and I tried standing various ways holding Sal to try to get a good shot.  Here are three of the coolest ones we took.

I asked my friends to pick their favorite paintings in the museum so I could take pictures of these handsome friends (and Sal, of course) in front of said paintings.  Here are the paintings they chose -- and my favorite, too.

This is the painting Tom chose.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the little sign by it so I could tell you its title and who painted it.  Oops!

David chose to be photographed with Sal in front of "Phenomena Ridge of Fire" by Paul Jenkins.

"Seize the Day" by Robert Natkin may have been my favorite painting today.  I loved the warm and joyous colors the artist used, and seeing the textures and shapes up close made me think of a cozy quilt.